Claro walnut

[Rich Stewart]

What is claro walnut? How many species of walnut are there? I have some that i liked VERY much and some I didn't like so much. Some has a green color, some is so pourous it looks bad after finishing. I guess I could look this up but I am lazy and I would rather get answers specific to turning.

Thanks,

Rich

[Pete Jordan]

Rich,
This is what I found on a site called Woodfinder.http://www.woodfinder.com/woods/claro_walnut.php
I think this site will be very helpful to me.

Pete

[Rich Stewart]

Wow! Great site Pete. Thanks a lot!!

[Reed Gray]

I have heard about a million stories on what 'Claro' walnut is. Gary Goby of Goby walnut told me that it is a color variation of western black walnut (If you want to see some really nice walnut, drooling is allowed, but not recomended over your keyboard, then look up his web site). I have been told that it is the grafted area of black and English walnut trees (this is an old practice that isn't used much any more, or so I am told). There is also a Juglans Hindsii or California Walnut, and I have been told that this is the true 'Claro' walnut. I don't know what to believe. I tend to believe that it is a species different from the Juglans Nigra, but that color variation in the species look similar.
robo hippy

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hey Pete thanks. Great site.

[Joseph Hadley]

Also occasionally referred to as Western Black Walnut. The Claro is the native walnut associated with the West coast from the Bay Area up into Oregon. Walnut Creek, not far from San Francisco, was named for them until the city grew and paved over most all of them. I believe the creek is buried as well. I think that's the concept...name the town after some wonderful natural feature, then do your best to quickly get rid of whatever quality attracted everyone in the first place.

English Walnut, the fruit, has a thinner shell and is better for commercial production, so, when groves were set up in Northern California, they grafted English Walnut onto the native Claro Walnut rootstock, as it was better acclimated to the region and would result in healthier trees. Sometimes the grafts wouldn't take and a Claro would survive the graft, growing into a full size tree on its own.

You don't see the big ones too often anymore. Most of the valley floor in this area (Sonoma County) has been cultivated as fields or orchards since the mid 1800's, so their native habitat was taken up with other ventures. In the past 40 or 50 years, most all of the orchards were torn up to be replanted as vineyards as wine sells for quite a bit more than a bag of walnuts or an apple. Some of the best Claro's I've seen grow (grew) in the valley floor, not too far from a stream or creek, reaching a DBH of over 60", a height of 60 to 80' with a canopy of nearly 100'. The topsoil here can be as much as 15 or 20 feet deep and those walnuts really thrived in that rich loam. Nowadays, they are more often seen as a shade tree at an older farmstead.

The coloration is different than that of black walnut. Reddish browns and shades of chocolate are often streaked throughout the grain. I heard that the rootstock of Claro is favored for use in making gunstocks. Every now and then I'll see a semi-flatbed making its way to market with two or three enormous stumps tied down, at which point I wonder what happened to the rest of it.

The last one I milled came from a remnant of a farm that had been converted to a vineyard. From ring counts it was about 120 years old. Over 5' in diameter, about 80' tall, with 25' of straight trunk. The owners of it sawed it down as they were afraid that it would blow over in a storm and flatten their bunkhouse. They were cutting it up for firewood. I asked if they would let me mill it if they would agree to split the lumber 50/50. We shook hands and I got busy calling around to find someone with a portable bandsaw mill. Within a few days we both had about 500' of wood cut in 2.25" slabs...and I had a quintuple hernia as well. Wet walnut is very heavy.

If you get some, you'll surely enjoy working with it, as it is quite beautiful wood. Although it is wishful thinking, it would be great if someone with as much money as sense and suitable land would plant some groves for their grandkids. Wine is OK, but tends to disappear within an hour or two. A Claro walnut dining table or sideboard though, will last for generations.

JD Hadley

[curtis rosche]

skip claro, and go to bag stone walnut, looks amazing, esp the burls

[Richard Madison]

Good post Joseph. Thanks. And if nobody has mentioned it, welcome to the forum. Glad you are here.

[Roger Bell]

Thanks Joseph for the detail.

I occasionally get Calif Claro scraps (as well as French and Turkish walnut) from a custom gunstock maker. Mostly big enough for small trinkets, such as boxes, handles, etc.
Turns like butter. Great stuff.

[Curt Fuller]

Thanks Joseph! That was really good information.

[TYLER WOOD]

answers my wuestion about it too. Thanks!

[Paul Atkins]

Here in Chico, Claro walnut is the city tree I think - at least for the woodworkers. Seems like everyone knows someone who has 'a big pile of slabs in their barn'. However too much gets cut up for firewood. My former shop partner and I have milled a few trees over 4' in diameter, one being over 5' that had to be trimmed so the 54" bar would fit. His website (http://www.sterlingwoodworking.com/) shows Claro in its best dress. The queen size Sleigh bed was veneered over 1 1/4" hand made /bent ply with 14" wide custom sequenced veneer. The dining tables were milled at about 3" and resawn for bookmatch. Pretty nice stuff to work with until you try to resaw a horseshoe or insulator thrown in a crotch when young. Now what to do with those big slabs ---